Since well before Christmas, I’ve been working on a background project.  Making my work areas more efficient.  In the couple of little projects that I’ve done since this Summer, I’ve realized that a few things needed to be moved to a better location.  Here is the results:

Main Workbench:

Rather than building a bench from scratch, I bought one.  Many of the inexpensive benches are very light so I’ve anchored it to the floor for stability during planing and such.  With the bench, I’ve made various bench hooks and such which have proven very useful.

Next a Dedicated Sharpening Bench:

This bench was my quick and dirty attempt at bench building.  Rather than get rid of it, I’ve turned it into my dedicated sharpening station with my Tormek, water stones, and granite stations.  I love having this set up all the time.  I’ve already been more inclined to sharpen blades when they start cutting funky.

Tool Cabinet:

I designed and built this tool cabinet with scraps from my shop.  It has turned out very well to house my chisels, measuring tools, and hand planes.  On the outside, I’ve got magnets holding my measuring tools.

On the inside are my chisels, hand planes, files, marking gauges, and mallets.

Hand Saws:

Next to the tool cabinet, I have my various hand saws.  This is a collection that is still being developed.  Based on reviews and trials, I’ve selected some of the basic saws I need.  I’m really focusing on Western saws though I have a few pull/japanese saws.

Next to the main saws, I have more saws along with my brace and hand drill.  This is also the port to the dust collection shed (see later in this post).

Sanding Station

I have a Rigid sanding station sitting on top of my Craftsman toolbox which holds hammers, screw drivers, wrenches, plyers, and such.

Router Table and Planer:

I have a cabinet (originally a flip top but I found that it didn’t work nearly as well as my fantasy) which houses my power planer and my router table (again I chose to go for a kit from Benchdog instead of designing and making one of my own).

Drill Press:

I have a Delta bench top drill press on a shop made cabinet.

Bandsaw:

Here is my Delta 14″ bandsaw.  I need to get a new blade and tune it up.

Festool:

Here is a shop made bench with a Festool work surface on top.  In the cabinet is my routers and bits and other non-Festool hand power tools.

Here are my Festool tools including a vacuum, circular saw, sander, jig saw, Domino.  I love my Festools (including the rail guides which I have in various sides).

The rest of the shop:

Notice that my dust collection is outside the shop.  Dust collection includes a floor sweep and 2 flex hoses on either side of the shop that can connect to the router table, bandsaw, planer, sander.

Basically, I’ve optimized my 12′x16′ shop space for hand tools and some limited power tool usage.

Post from: This Week in Wood (c)2009 Glenn Thompson. For Downloads, Pictures, and other great content go to This Week in Wood. See This Week in Wood Legal Information Page for specific usage rights.

Updated Shop Tour – Detailed

As a woodworker, I am primarily self taught.  This means that, I’ve figured things out myself, watched videos/TV shows to understand techniques, and read books and magazine articles to understand additional techniques.  During all this, I’ve been (nearly entirely) focused on using power tools – table saws, bandsaws, hand power tools, jointers, routers, planers and others.

Over the last year or so, I’ve been trying to change my approach to woodworking.  First, I’ve started using hand tools.  My first big use was for a cherry blanket chest project (I haven’t posted anything on this yet but I will list it at some point in my Past Projects series of posts).  I used a jointer plane (very long bed) to joint boards together.  This worked out well though I’m sure my technique has a lot of short comings.  I’ve obtained many planes which I use though I’m not sure in the correct fashion yet and I’ve obtained chisels.  I’ve obtained a few hand saws.  My first time of cutting hand cut dovetails was for a tool cabinet that I’m working on that will be wall mounted and hold hand planes, chisels, measuring and marking tools (I’ll do a post on that at some point when I finish it – I’m working on the doors right now).

All that being said, I have no intention of giving up power tools.  They do things more accurately and quickly than many hand tool tecnhiques.

…though…

I have decided to give up the table saw.  My primary motivation is space.  My shop is small (16×12) and the table saw takes up nearly half that space (clearance and actual foot print).  My secondary motivation is that I believe that my Festool circular saw (I have a first generation of the TS55) can achieve much of what I can do on a table saw – perhaps more and maybe even in a safer manner.

It’s a big leap but I’m hopeful of the space recovered that I can have a proper workbench and still have space to cut sheet goods (though I hope to reduce my projects involving sheet goods and go to more solid wood projects).

Are there others out there that have attempted this same path or am I the only one?

Post from: This Week in Wood (c)2009 Glenn Thompson. For Downloads, Pictures, and other great content go to This Week in Wood. See This Week in Wood Legal Information Page for specific usage rights.

Under consideration – Workshop Change